How to Draw Chinese Dragon Tattoos
- 1
Start with his face. Draw an almond shape for the eye, triangular shapes for his hair sticking up, a moustache and beard, triangles as teeth and a forked or curved line for his tongue. - 2). Draw snaking lines to create his body shape. Draw a single, snaked line to serve as the bottom of his body, curving it as you like. Draw another single line above the first line, placing it as far away as you want. This is the dragon’s width. The lines should begin at the base of his head and end in a triangular shape that will be his tail.
- 3
Wing it. Draw a single line coming from the back of the dragon that curves upward, comes to a point and then curves like an umbrella to create the wing shape. From the bottom tip of the umbrella, draw about three curved lines that also each come to a point. Directly inside your first line, draw a second line inside the wing. Connect the bottom of the umbrella points to the top point of the wing with a double line. Fill in wing details as desired. Repeat for second wing. - 4). Create arms and legs. The arms will consist of two straight line, doubled, with a bend at the elbow. The legs, if bent beneath the dragon, should be a semicircle that ends in a claw. Claws are drawn by three lines coming out from a single point, like part of a spoke, with triangular talons on the end.
- 5). Detail his tail. Draw any details at the triangular point you already created as the tip of his tail. You can use a single triangle as a giant scale, make a loopy swirl or anything else you’d like your dragon to be able to whip around.
- 6). Add the glorious details. Finish off with scales, swirls, smiley faces and whatever other detailed adornments you want included in your dragon. Make sure the fine details are not too fine--if your drawing is going to be used as a tattoo--or the lines will blur together on the skin. Details can be ornate but still simple and spaced far enough apart so you can tell what they are.
